LaCie have released an interesting new storage device this week that combines the advantages of having a USB stick with the ability to use both SD and microSD cards.{ad}

It is called the LaCie Data/Share and as you can see in the video above is splits into two and sports two USB connections. The white section houses a slot for a microSD card while the red section has a slot for SD cards. By doing this LaCie hope to make it easier to access your data by providing a simple way to utilize a USB connection on a machine with multiple storage formats.

LaCie also highlight the ability to split the data on the device so you keep everything you want to share on one side and all your personal files on the other.

The Data/Share is compatible with Windows (2000, XP, Vista), Mac (OS X v10.3.5 or higher), and Linux and is USB 2.0 and 1.1 compatible. It measures 70 x 35 x 13 mm and comes with a USB extension cable, strap for a keyring, and a microSD to SD card adaptor. You can pick one up from the LaCie Online Store for just $9.99.

Matthew’s Opinion
For the price this is a really useful device allowing for a simple solution to gaining access to microSD and SD cards via the more common USB interface. Card readers are commonplace now, but nowhere near as common as a USB connection. You can’t guarantee the data you have on one of those cards is going to be accessible in a public location.

The Data/Share also serves another purpose as it can be used as a standard USB storage device. If you have loads of old SD cards you could use them in this as a way of storing different types of data. An old 8GB SD card and the Data/Share create a perfectly good USB stick. Then in the future you may have a free 16GB SD card and can “upgrade” your Data/Share with it. Is this the first USB stick that is future proof?

The only other feature they could add to the Data/Share is built-in storage and a copy feature. Sometimes you may want to get information off someone else’s SD/microSD card, but can’t keep that card. If you could store it on this device that would be possible, but it would increase the overall size and price.